In the aftermath of natural (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and the like) and man-made (e.g., terrorism, arson, nuclear, biologic and chemical attacks, and the like) disasters (“events”), a situation often arises in which victims are trapped in unknown locations within an “affected area”, for example under the rubble of one or more collapsed buildings. In such a scenario, there is a very small window of time within which emergency responders may locate victims in time to provide potentially life-saving assistance. Typically, this problem is addressed through relatively low-tech methods such as the use of rescue dogs, listening for sounds, looking for heat signatures with thermal imaging equipment, and the like; however, such methods are limited in effectiveness and ability to scale. This invention provides a novel additional approach which can rapidly locate victims by geolocating their cell phones.
Cellular geolocation is not a new concept; modern cellular networks are designed to keep track of the approximate locations of their users. However, such location information is only known to the network providers and its disclosure may be subject to certain legal and physical limitations, which means that it is not of immediate (e.g., within the first few hours after occurrence of the event) use to emergency responders. In a search and rescue scenario, it is critical that emergency responders be self-sufficient; that is, that they arrive on the scene with all of the equipment needed to do their jobs, and are not required to wait for information to be provided by third parties.